A few thoughts about Shieldbugs

The Forest bug or Red-legged Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes) with its stylish chequered edges.

Whilst picking beans in the Kitchen Garden the other day I came across a couple of very handsome shieldbugs. We have a lot of them in the gardens and I’m always very taken with how somehow unexpected they are. Before we moved here I thought a shieldbug was a shieldbug and it was green, but as with so many things I’ve discovered since we’ve been here, it turns out there are considerably more varieties of them than I imagined.

The Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) - this one looks to me as if it's been sculpted out of rusty steel.

They always look like very friendly little creatures and it helps that they don’t bite. They also don’t seem to do too much damage to our plants, although they do have a penchant for raspberries…